The Min­istry of Health has re­leased a new ad­vi­so­ry con­cern­ing the vac­ci­na­tion against COVID-19 of preg­nant and breast­feed­ing women in Trinidad and To­ba­go, in­clud­ing which vac­cines should be used when and by whom.

De­tails fol­low…

Port of Spain, Sep­tem­ber 22nd, 2021—The Min­istry of Health pre­vi­ous­ly an­nounced that, as part of its ex­pand­ed vac­ci­na­tion roll out, preg­nant and breast­feed­ing women can ac­cess spe­cif­ic COVID-19 vac­cines and that the Pfiz­er-BioN­Tech vac­cine is avail­able to the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion.  Mem­bers of the pub­lic, es­pe­cial­ly the preg­nant and breast­feed­ing pop­u­la­tions are there­fore ad­vised of the fol­low­ing:

1.   The Pfiz­er-BioN­Tech vac­cine is ap­proved for breast­feed­ing women, as well as preg­nant women in their 2nd and 3rd trimester of preg­nan­cy. The two-dose regime can be giv­en dur­ing preg­nan­cy or be­gin af­ter de­liv­ery.

2.   The Sinopharm vac­cine is ap­proved for breast­feed­ing women but not for those who are preg­nant.

3.   COVID-19 vac­cine Com­bi­na­tion

      (a)  If a woman re­ceived a first dose of the Sinopharm vac­cine be­fore preg­nan­cy, she should not be giv­en the Pfiz­er-BioN­Tech vac­cine dur­ing preg­nan­cy as the sec­ond dose. She can com­plete the two-dose Sinopharm regime af­ter preg­nan­cy. Clin­i­cians should check for the lat­est guid­ance on this sce­nario.

      (b)  If a woman re­ceived one dose of the As­traZeneca vac­cine be­fore preg­nan­cy, she is el­i­gi­ble for a sin­gle dose of the Pfiz­er-BioN­Tech vac­cine as her sec­ond dose, once she is in her 2nd or 3rd trimester of preg­nan­cy.  A woman will be con­sid­ered to be ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed two weeks af­ter the sec­ond dose. A third vac­cine dose is not re­quired.

As sci­en­tif­ic da­ta evolves, this ad­vice may change to in­clude oth­er com­bi­na­tions of vac­cines.

The Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go re­mains com­mit­ted to safe­guard­ing the health of the cit­i­zen­ry and will con­tin­ue to pro­vide safe and ef­fec­tive WHO ap­proved COVID-19 vac­cines to the pop­u­la­tion.